Friday wrote:It's part of why Japanese games are terrible at foreshadowing: they can't not explain literally every fucking thing to death, even stuff that's supposed to be subtle.

I find that this is ironic in the thread about Persona. Playing Persona 3 completely cold to any of its content start to end blew me away with its subtlety, nuance, and profound writing underneath all the anime bullshit. I mean. Yes, it is a product of japan and there are tons of words, but it really doesn't treat you like a child in terms of narrative at all.

In response to the tweet, I am with Thad in questioning if he has ever consumed another SMT product at all. Because, well. You shouldn't if you don't like reading novels.

A professional translator's take on the not-perfect localization of Persona 5. While the bits about why it's subpar are listed, that's not the main reason I found it interesting. While some errors in P5 are easy to spot casually, it is still pretty easy to consume. Though it makes good points about why that isn't and shouldn't be acceptable for a work as notable as P5, I'm pretty easygoing.I thought it was interesting for a professional's take on translation in general, and the in depth look at methodology and ideals that he lays out.

About 90 hours and 76 levels later, finished P5 up with max confidants. I gotta say, the two "focus on these" tips I mentioned earlier (Temperance to 5 / Fortune to 7 ASAP) made this a much less stressful experience than P3/P4 were when it came to trying to juggle the various social links. Without using a guide for anything except Persona fusing for the one link that requires it, I managed to max out all my social stats and hit my last maxed confidant with about 7 days left before the end-game. I also got a fair amount of trophies in the process, though there's a pretty substantial chunk that'll require another playthrough. Which I'm not in a super hurry to jump right into. One brief warning about that suggestion is that it requires spending a hefty chunk of money in game to really utilize, so you won't have much left over for items and equipment at first. After a while it smooths out substantially. A helpful way to give a necessary boost at one point is to download the healing item set they offered for free through PSN, as you'll get a Soma that you can sell for 50k yen.

Overall, the cast never quite gelled in the way P4's did for me, but they definitely shine more than their initial impressions lead to believe. I'm not sure if any single confidant really stood out as amazing storyline wise, but there were a few I dug quite a bit. The dungeon design is both leagues above the prior games and also still as tedious as those games could be at different parts of the game. It's fucking hard to keep JRPG systems fun and interesting after 90 hours, but I was never outright bored by the combat or the dungeons outside of a few gimmicks overstaying their welcome in individual sequences. (Fucking mice.) That being said, on Normal difficulty after about .. 1/3rd of the way through the game the threat of bullshit RNG instant death stopped looming over every new set of random battles, so the frustration factor of luck wiping out twenty minutes of progress seemed a lot lower to me this time around. On the other hand, I might've just gotten lucky.

Of the modern era, on the heels of this I'd probably say P4>P5>P3. I think P5 is a bit weaker in story, characters, and surprises than the others, but man if that style doesn't count for a fucking lot.

That includes the "max out every social link" and "defeat the twins" ones. Did you do this in one playthrough or multiple?

I've been investing like 20-minute sessions on this game whenever I can get a play in edgewise. Last night I hung out with my boi, got hazed by the track team, took drugs at the black market doctor's office, blacked out, then awoke the next day to enter the Palace, save at the door, then fall sleep on my futon, causing my PS3 to automatically turn off.

I am at the tail of my first playthrough and I have finished all the social links and maxed stats. This game gives you a lot of leeway for it compared to previous games. I have had like 2 days with nothing to do but play video games pretty much, and it looks like I'll have a few more even now.

PROTIP: While you can max a couple of links before you meet Temperance, Temperance is, full stop, the most important one to max